Cranked has been Stacksed!

Seattle-based Cranked captures the undeniable influence of landscape on the Pacific Northwest’s bike culture while managing to appeal to riders everywhere. Images of some of Seattle’s best-known (and often most-loathed) hills accompany Issue #4’s brief homage, “The Hills I’ve Come to Love in Seattle.” The article’s message — embrace the hills — would likely resonate with riders negotiating inclines from San Francisco to Boston. Like Momentum (see above), Cranked doesn’t focus exclusively on local culture. For instance, the very detailed and thoroughly enjoyable, “The Importance of the Bicycle to the Early Women’s Liberation Movement,” recounts early anxieties about the corrupting influence of bicycles on women (cycling, it was thought, “heats the blood… destroys feminine symmetry and poise” and is “a disturber of internal organs”), showing just how far our bikes have taken us. — Evelyn Hampton